Andy Murray was happy to overcome a tricky hurdle in the shape of Andrey Golubev and reach the second round of the French Open.

The Wimbledon champion dropped a set on his first appearance at Roland Garros in two years but never looked in real danger of following the likes of Stan Wawrinka, Li Na and Grigor Dimitrov out of the tournament.

Golubev is a flashy player who, along with the cold and windy conditions, made Murray's life difficult before the Scot ground out a 6-1 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

He said: "It was tough conditions. It was obviously windy, especially at the beginning of the match, and very heavy conditions, cold and slow.

"He goes for his shots a lot. And there wasn't too much rhythm out there. It was a tricky match.

"I won the match. I did enough. In the third set I didn't serve particularly well. For the rest of the match I did okay. I did what I had to do, and I got myself into the tournament now.

"There have been quite a few upsets here the last few days and tricky conditions. So the most important thing is to get through.

"I've done a good job of that the last few years in the slams. I have not always played my best tennis at the beginning of the tournaments but I found ways to get through and give myself opportunities to do well in these events."

Murray missed the tournament last year because of the back problems that eventually saw him undergo surgery in September.

His form this season has been patchy to say the least but he went into the tournament on a good note after playing an excellent match against Rafael Nadal in Rome, albeit in defeat.

He made a fine start, winning the first four games and not allowing Golubev, a Kazakh ranked 53, to hold his serve during the first set.

But Golubev's mixture of winners and shanks was not allowing Murray to find any rhythm and, after a closer second set, the Scot's serve deserted him as he lost the third.

But Murray was much more solid in the fourth set and came through in two hours and 35 minutes.

A combined total of 93 unforced errors, 59 of them from Golubev, told the story of the sort of match it was, and Murray cut a frustrated figure for much of the match.

Clay has always been his most troublesome surface, even without the back issue, but he said: "I was looking forward to playing (at Roland Garros) again.

"I came here a few weeks ago to practice with (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga and I was looking forward to it even more after that.

"It wasn't easy to play great tennis or very exciting tennis so you just had to just play a solid, high-percentage game. That was enough today. But I was definitely excited to be back playing here."

Murray next faces Australian Marinko Matosevic, who finally won a match in the main draw of a grand slam with a four-set victory over Dustin Brown, coming back from 5-1 down in the fourth set.

It was 13th time lucky for the 28-year-old, who had lost all 12 of his previous slam matches dating back to his Australian Open debut in 2010.

Matosevic celebrated in exuberant fashion, collapsing at the baseline and then rolling over and over until he was halfway up the court and covered in clay.

He said: "Maybe it was a little bit over the top but it was just huge relief.

"I feel like there is a huge gorilla off my shoulders. Hopefully it can free me up now."

Murray's brother Jamie is through to the second round of the doubles, the Scot and Australian partner John Peers beating Vasek Pospisil and Rajeev Ram 6-1 4-6 7-6 (7/2).

But Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins were not able to capitalise on a good start and lost 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 to Scott Lipsky and Santiago Gonzalez.